John Clarke, CM (February 25, 1945 – January 23, 2003) was a Canadian explorer, mountaineer, conservationist, and wilderness educator.
His routes regularly led him along the high ridges and glaciated icefields of the West Coast and allowed him to make hundreds of first ascents of the many mountains along the way.
In 1994, during a multi-week traverse of the Kitlope region of the Coast Mountains, Randy Stoltmann, a good friend of Clarke's, was killed in an avalanche while attempting a summit.
[4] In 1997, Clarke, Chief Bill Williams (hereditary chief of the Squamish First Nation), and artist photographer Nancy Bleck founded the Uts'am Witness Project, providing an opportunity for city folk to reconnect with nature and to take part in a Coast Salish First Nations witness ceremony.
In 2012, Harbour Publishing released the book John Clarke Explorer of the Coast Mountains written by Lisa Baile.